Talk:Vegetarian Society

Qualification
I would recommend qualifying and changing the scentence snippet "is believed to be the oldest society promoting vegetarianism in the world"

to

"is believed to be the oldest society promoting vegetarianism among a prodominently non-vegetarian society in the modern world".

-- Sudarshanhs 08:46, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I think "oldest formal, non-religious organization" would be the right qualification. Histories of the society do mention their awareness of pre-existing vegetarianism for spiritual and religious purposes. Shyamal (talk) 12:22, 1 September 2015 (UTC)


 * FYI: Vegetarian Society (Singapore) is a "non-profit, non-denominational organization." --huggi - never stop exploring (talk) 13:43, 1 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Yes ,but according to the article it was established in 1999 and does not claim to be the "oldest". If I read between the lines, the original poster wants to highlight the fact that vegetarianism has been a tradition in some other parts of the world, specifically India, from a lot longer before than 1847. Shyamal (talk) 14:38, 1 September 2015 (UTC)


 * No need to read between the lines. Vegetarianism and religion is the better place to read about today or Ancient History of vegetarianism about the past. I see that the Vegetarian Society is now also part of the EVU and through that also part of the IVU, are there any timelines/records, there's not much more at: http://www.euroveg.eu/lang/en/about/countries/britain.php for e.g. when this happend?  --huggi - never stop exploring (talk) 15:23, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

The term "Vegetarian"
The article currently asserts that "The term "vegetarian" was coined on 30 September 1847 at the first meeting of The Vegetarian Society." The OED lists the earliest usage of the word as 1839.--Larrybob 16:39, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Removed factual errors
Removed incorrect reference to the publication date of 'The Vegetarian' magazine (article said 1848, actually it was 1888). Also, Gandhi belonged to the LONDON Vegetarian Society, which was a separate organization. It merged with the society described here in 1969, but until I (or anyone) add LVS to the history it would be misleading to mention Gandhi. DaveinMPLS (talk) 05:51, 30 July 2011 (UTC)

Proper Name - The Vegetarian Society (UK)
The proper name for the organization featured in this Wikipedia article is The Vegetarian Society. Since it is a UK organization, I suggest that the article be renamed 'The Vegetarian Society (UK)' so that those looking for this organization will immediately recognize it as 'The Vegetarian Society' in London, the UK. MaynardClark (talk) 02:22, 27 February 2015 (UTC)


 * Hi MaynardClark, I've created List of vegetarian organizations under see also, that should limit the troubles you had. Cheers! --huggi - never stop exploring (talk) 08:54, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

Good idea. The split between the original Vegetarian Society based in Manchester and its London offshoot took place well over a century ago. They did reunite in any case towards the end of the 19th century. "(UK)" sounds good. I'm sure other countries have or had them. Bmcln1 (talk) 20:17, 18 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Why don't we change this article's name to 'Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom' (because merely calling it one of its two names ('Vegetarian Society' rather than 'VSUK') betrays a national bias which Wikipedians in other nations are taught not to nurture. MaynardClark (talk) 03:00, 21 September 2020 (UTC)

May Yates (Mary Corkling)
Do you have a source that mentions that May Yates was secretary of the London Vegetarian Society? Her bread reform league was merged into the London Vegetarian Society but it is difficult to find a reliable source that says she was the secretary of the LVS. Yates is mentioned in a footnote in Colin Spencer's book but there is no mention that she was secretary of the LVS so it is original research to include it.

In vegetarian literature, Mary Corkling is referred to as "May Yates". I don't doubt she was the organizing secretary because that is mentioned in their journal, but it's difficult to find a reliable neutral source that mentions this. Psychologist Guy (talk) 18:35, 18 May 2020 (UTC)

I lit on the page only a few days ago. My problems with it were linguistic. I also added a few links, but I quite agree, the next move should be to get some more refs sorted out. Bmcln1 (talk) 20:21, 18 May 2020 (UTC)

Why don't we...
Why don't we change this article's name to 'Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom' (because merely calling it one of its two names ('Vegetarian Society' rather than 'VSUK') betrays a national bias which Wikipedians in other nations are taught not to nurture. MaynardClark (talk) 03:00, 21 September 2020 (UTC)
 * See above! MaynardClark (talk) 03:00, 21 September 2020 (UTC)
 * They are best known as the "Vegetarian Society" world-wide and often reported to be the first vegetarian society. The "Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom" does not have much usage so in my opinion would not be worth renaming the article this. Psychologist Guy (talk) 20:02, 25 September 2020 (UTC)